Review of Crossfire (1947) by John D — 24 Jun 2008

I'm not sure why they have this description by "Richard T. Jameson". It's fairly accurate, but erratic and a bit weird. How is "Gentlemen's Agreement" more "upscale" than "Crossfire"? "Sweaty subtext"? You've got to be kidding.

I won't waste much time about that drivel. Point is, Crossfire is a real good movie, though dated in the sense that the pro-Jewish sentiment was really flowing in 1940's Hollywood. One of these reviews though was actually good and it said that it may have typecast the fabulous Robert Ryan and sadly it's probably true.

Ryan is terrific as the bigoted ex-soldier and Robert Mitchum is very good as the soldier who is close to a wrongly accused person as the murderer as well as Robert Young being terrific as the detective seeking out the killer.

And forget about idiot Richard T. Jameson's description - when you're watching, you'll be held in suspense for much of the movie and you'll certainly be in doubt as to who did it. This is a real good movie - not great - but a real good film noir with good acting.

What more would you want? I also liked that in the first scene, about a minute or more passes with no dialogue.